Byzantine Town Planning – Does It Exist? (With Plates 8–21)
57 H ANS B UC H WALD Byzantine Town Planning – Does it Exist? (with plates 8–21) For Eduard Sekler There are many equally valid, parallel approaches to the study of Byzantine cities. My approach is that of a practicing town planner and an architectural historian. Town planning today is concerned with physical properties of cities such as their topography, circulation patterns, pedestrian spaces, buildings, and urban accents; however, town planning is, and probably always was, equally concerned with urban functions, with the creation of new urban forms, with urban meanings, and with adjustments, in the course of time, to new requirements. As in all town planning, the results of the present investigation need to be complemented by those of other disciplines, for instance, (in this case) historians, economists, sociologists, and archaeologists. Hundreds of cities that existed in the Byzantine region are known by name, and at times by their ar- chaeological or contemporary remains. Generally, two distinct phases in the history of these Byzantine cities have been determined: the earlier period, which begins with the era of Constantine and, depending upon local circumstances, ends between the 5th and the 8th century, and the later period, which ends with the end of Byzantine occupation at each site. The possibility of continuity between the two phases remains an open, much discussed question, and some observations concerning one phase may also be relevant to the other. For summaries, for instance, D. CLAUDE, Die byzantinische Stadt im 6. Jahrhundert. Munich 969, –; A. H. M. JONES, The Greek City from Alexander to Justinian. Oxford 939, 85–94.
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